


Approach With Caution

by yodepalma



Series: One-Shots I Wish I Could Continue [5]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Implied Relationships, One Shot, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 03:56:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4814042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yodepalma/pseuds/yodepalma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"By the way," the man said as he reached up and started messing with the locks on his wrists. "I'm Eight, The Flurry--"</p>
<p>"—of Dancing Flames," Roxas concluded softly, closing his eyes as he remembered what he'd been told. "Real name unknown. Approximately six feet tall; other attributes unknown. Pyrokinetic. Battles with a pair of giant chakram. Smooth talker. Powerful. As always, approach with caution, but be especially wary of deceit."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Approach With Caution

**Author's Note:**

> This was meant to be a nice, epic Axel/Roxas AU of KH that had a lot of similarities to the first three games...but I got this far and couldn't figure out where to go with it that wasn't completely cliche. And, yeah.

_Approach With Caution_

_Number Twelve_ , Roxas thought blearily, trying desperately to distance himself from the reality of his situation—the ever-present hunger, the smell of his own urine, the pain in every imaginable part of his body, including parts he wasn't even previously aware could hurt. _Code name: Savage Nymph. Real name unknown. Blonde hair, blue eyes, willowy frame. Sadistic to the point of...of something terrible.  I am going to kill Leon when I get out of this because this is so far from working I might as well be torturing myself. But first I'm going to find this bitch and kill her, then piss on her corpse. Christ, when is she going to get back here so I have another excuse to piss myself again?_

Almost as if on cue, there was the sound of a door creaking open and the click of a light turning on that made him flinch back as if he'd been slapped. The door slammed shut soon after and Roxas braced himself because the sooner the door closed, the madder she was, and this was going to **hurt**.

"Wakey, wakey, Roxas!" Twelve's girlish voice called sweetly as long nails dug into his chin and forced his head up. Knowing better than to fight by now, he opened his eyes to stare, unfocused, into hers. "You've gotten quite boring lately, so I've decided to bring you a new playmate! Aren't you excited, Roxas?"

"Hooray," Roxas said dully, his voice gravelly due to screaming. Twelve gave him plenty of water to drink (" _Wouldn't want your voice to go completely, now, would we?_ "), which was the only reason he could speak at all.

"Christ, Larxene, what did you do to him?" an unfamiliar voice asked, and he automatically tried to turn his head to take in this new person, but Twelve's—Larxene, he noted to himself to tell the others later—grip held him tight. "I thought both the Superior **and** Marluxia told you to keep him alive."

"He's alive," Twelve responded petulantly, and Roxas could just imagine the cute pout that would be on her face as her nails dug into his skin. _I hate her, I hate her, I **hate her**._

"Barely," New Voice said shortly, and Twelve's hand was torn from him. He let his head drop back down and closed his eyes again. "You think he'll be any good to us in the state he's in? Hell, if I was the poor fucker's big brother I'd rather you just put him out of his misery than attempt to save him!"

"Which is why **you're** here now." Twelve's voice was so sweet it could rot your teeth. "You're so good at cleaning my toys up. Maybe I can even get this one back once he's got some spirit again."

"Marluxia knows better than that," New Voice muttered, and there was a sizzling sound like electricity. "Fuckin'—Larxene! You want me to get you out of this mess you made or not? You and I both know the moment he started showing the slightest hint of recovery, you'd just kick him back to this state again. Nobody's going to let you watch him again when you've proven that 'gentle' to you means 'not using your knives'. He's too important to our plans. You do remember our goal, don't you?"

"Yes, yes, get The Chosen One and open The Kingdom, ultimate power, yadda yadda yadda." She'd be waving her hand negligently in the air now, as if the ability to practically be a god meant nothing to her. "But you're so soft with them! Don't you want to have any fun?"

"Not your kind of fun. Now get out of here, Larxene, unless you want me to get somebody else involved."

Twelve made an annoyed sound, and then there was the sound of her crossing the room again, the door creaking slowly open and slamming shut behind her. Roxas would have breathed a sigh of relief, but the next thing he heard was the soft sound of clothing rustling and being dropped to the ground and he flinched back into his chains instead, wondering if he was finally going to be subjected to the one form of torture that Twelve didn't seem intent on inflicting upon him.

"Relax," New Voice said softly, and the soft touch of fingers on his chin where Twelve's nails had been made him flinch back again, keeping his eyes closed as tightly as possible. This didn't seem to deter the man, as he touched at Roxas' chin again—but, though his grip was firm, it wasn't painful, and Roxas grudgingly opened his eyes.

The absolute first thing he noticed was red, a color so vivid that for a moment he couldn't take his eyes off it. He hadn't seen anything other than black, white, blonde, and blue for a long time and this sudden splash of color made his breath catch in his throat. Then his eyes caught on another color, two spots of blurry green circles, and two spots of black underneath. He tried to focus his eyes to get a better idea of what he was looking at, but that just made them water so bad he couldn't keep them open any more.

"Christ," New Voice said again, and Roxas felt a pair of thumbs at his eyes, drying them so he could see again. "I suppose I should be grateful you can still open your eyes at all, but crying isn't the response I was expecting when you saw my face."

"Not crying," Roxas snapped immediately, and winced at the pain this called up in his throat. The thumbs pulled away.

"Oh?" New Voice asked softly, and Roxas thought he could hear a bit of a smile in the question. "What would you call it then?"

Roxas stayed stubbornly silent.

"Crying it was, then," the other said decisively. "But then I suppose you would be grateful seeing as I just saved you from a fate worse than death there. It's touching, really, but a 'thank you' would have been good enough for me."

"It burns," Roxas bit out, wanting to snarl, "when I try to focus. And your hair's blinding." There, at least he'd gotten an (admittedly weak) insult in.

New Voice laughed, a surprising sound that made Roxas jump. "And she said you didn't have a backbone left. I think she confused 'broken' with exhausted and probably starved. And from the way you smell, you haven't been let down in the four days you've been here. Open your eyes again."

Roxas hesitated for a moment, but did as he was told. He didn't try to focus on New Voice's features again, but his eyes were caught on the glint of something. Something small and silver, and he could just barely make out a shape, but it looked like it might be—but it **wouldn't** be--

"I'm going to make you a deal, Roxas," New Voice said in a no-nonsense tone. "This thing here is the key to your chains, and I have an unopened Elixir in my pocket. I'm going to let you down, give you the potion, get you some food and new clothes after a warm bath. And I'll leave you down to do pretty much whatever you want in these rooms, where I'll stay with you to keep Larxene away."

"...The catch?" Roxas asked warily.

"Not much of one, really. You'll have to wear the shackles, since they're what's keeping you from calling on your magic or the keyblades. I'll have to chain you to something immovable when I leave or I'm vulnerable, not that I think you're dumb enough to try to escape into enemy territory with no weapons. The first sign that you're trying to escape, you'll go right back onto that wall. So you just promise to behave, all right?"

"And if I don't?"

"Well. You'll still get some food. But the bath won't be fun, and you'll end up staying on that wall. Naked. With a bucket under you to catch the urine. And Larxene'll be in and out as she pleases, but, you know, if you're starting to miss her or anything. I know my offer sounds too good to be true, but I swear it's honest."

There was absolutely no reason to believe what this man said, Roxas knew that. He was a member of the Organization, deceit probably came naturally to him, and it wouldn't really do him any good for him to stay true to his word. But given the options...given the small ball of hope and optimism that he could never quite bury...

"All right," he said softly, closing his eyes again. New Voice moved immediately, holding Roxas up by the waist with one hand as he undid the chains around his ankles. "Promise."

"By the way," the man said as he reached up and started messing with the locks on his wrists. "I'm Eight, The Flurry--"

"—of Dancing Flames," Roxas concluded softly, closing his eyes as he remembered what he'd been told. "Real name unknown. Approximately six feet tall; other attributes unknown. Pyrokinetic. Battles with a pair of giant chakram. Smooth talker. Powerful. As always, approach with caution, but be especially wary of deceit."

"Yeah," the man acknowledged, sounding impressed as he caught Roxas before he fell to the ground. He tilted Roxas' head back before pulling the cork out of the Elixir while still holding him up—Roxas heard him spit it out, heard it bounce off the wall and onto the floor. "Good memory. But I think you can call me Axel."


End file.
